Triumph sprung hub rear wheels

Jerry Doe

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I have come across 3 triumph sprung hub rear wheels. I am not sure, but maybe they were on 5ta. If you need one let me know. The owner wants to sell them,

Jerry
 
Perfect for those who wish to build rigid bobbers, kinda popular still...
 
The sprung hub was an early shot at a rear suspension system. I'm fairly sure they were unique to Trimph. They had very limited travel, but did improve ride comfort compared to rigid rear ends. They went out of production when swing-arm rear ends were invented, probably around 1953. My '55 BSA A-7 had a swing arm. A friend's '51 250 BSA was rigid.
 
If they're not frozen with rust (huge, expensive ring bearings), that's not a bad price at all. Last I heard they were fetching $500 and up.
 
An old bloke told a mate of mine that in ww2 they killed more men than hitler!
 
Probably should have said "sprung hubs killed moe men than hitler" ! But I've no knowledge on sprung hubs whatsoever ,as to whether they were temprimental I've no idea. Cheers anyway Les.
 
Whatever you think of them, they’re an interesting thing, and an interesting testament to British engineering design...

It’s a hellova complex thing, all designed from scratch. I can’t help but think that designing a simple swinging arm conversion (which is what they ended up doing anyway) would have been easier and cheaper!

Even then, there were many swinging arm after market conversions around, it must have been fairly easy to predict that that was the future?
 
Probably should have said "sprung hubs killed moe men than hitler" ! But I've no knowledge on sprung hubs whatsoever ,as to whether they were temprimental I've no idea.

I'm not sure about "temperamental" but it's not advisable to dismantle the spring box without the special jig!

Hitler delayed the introduction of the Triumph sprung hub/wheel as it would've gone into production in 1941 if it hadn't been for WW2.
The original factory drawings were destroyed during the air raid on Coventry on the night of 14/15 November 1940 so had to be done again after the war ended.

https://www.tomcc.org/Home/News/ea06d98e44534266b5a5b982e860255d
 
I didn’t know that LAB. Certainly would have made more sense if introduced in 1940/41.

It’s still very interesting though that they decided to revive the design post war instead of looking around and moving on!

Edward Tuner was very passionate about the visual aspects of his designs. Maybe the motivation was to introduce suspension without ‘distubing’ the aesthetics ?
 
Aye, the Fockers bombed the Triumph Chop shop. A suppose the sprung hub was the last thing on their minds after that night.
 
I remember reading in classic bike that Edward turner designed the spring hub himself,I'm guessing the sprung hub was designed so as not to build a new frame? With hindsight a swing arm would be a better bet but maybe not at that time?
But when it was made the hub spring rate was something like 40% too weak so they had to beef them up .
Back in the 70s I remember my mate paying about £40 for a pair of wheel bearings from an old triumph dealer we didn't let on that was for my mates chop ,and that we were running the spring box upside down to get the bike another inch lower
 
I've only ever ridden one bike with a sprung hub, it was a Thunderbird with a T110 engine/gearbox, in the mid 60s. On a nice relatively good stretch of road, at anything over 80, 85 mph, it had a mind of it's own. Difficult to keep between the hedgerows. I was sufficiently impressed that I have never ridden a sprung hub since. It doesn't surprise me that Turner designed it.
cheers
wakeup
 
C’mon, to be fair to Edward, ALL rear suspension was shite back when he designed that...

And any sprung buns that were in use in the 70s were surely absolutely knackered...

Can’t really expect too much from shite knackered suspension !
 
C’mon, to be fair to Edward, ALL rear suspension was shite back when he designed that...

1939 Velocette.

Triumph sprung hub rear wheels
 
That’s not standard though is it? Surely a a McAndless or similar after market rear end no?
 
Now then... that wasn’t quite my question was it?!

However, google images appears to show it was standard, either that or a very popular mod!

I would actually suggest it may have been inspired by the aftermarket rear ends of the day.

Even so, as good as it is for its day, I’m still sticking by my shite suspension accusation as hydraulic damping technology was still very much in its infancy then. As was how to stop the frame acting like a torsion bar spring in the middle (something that Mr Turner seemed to struggle with for longer than most) !
 
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